The research will be concerned with the design and construction of systems which can reveal the effect of remote binding forces on rates and equilibria. Here the premise is that the features exhibited by enzymic catalysis can be used to enhance processes involving much smaller molecules in solution. Specifically, allosteric effects will be explored using crown ethers which bear remote binding sites through which conformational changes can be transmitted to the ethereal cavity. A macrobicyclic crown ether will be prepared as a model for subunit enzyme systems and binding measurements with metal ions will be used to evaluate allosteric cooperativity.